This is why stores would let you listen to it before purchasing
And thats why we still had cassette decks that could record from CDs you borrowed from your buddies/public library.
Yea I remember when people would just stand around the headphone booths in music stores and sample whatever new CDs came out that week. Maybe it was worse in the cassette tape era?
The headphones were gross. And to be honest, most albums only have a couple good songs anyway.
It was always like that, wasnt it? Albums would have that one headline track that everyone wanted and then 7 bullshit tracks and one or two tracks that kinda sounded like the good track, as if they were the discarded parts that they decided to cut and stitch into a song to fill up the cd.
Wasn’t 1999 the peak of the price gouging from the record labels? It was like $20-25 for a new album for a ton of the major record labels from what I remember.
My budget for CDs maxed out at $16. After that, I had to moved to Napster.
1999 CDs were typically $20 - $30 so it was actually worse. This was what you would pay at a Sam Goody, Camelot Music, FYE etc.
It wasn’t until a few years later that CD prices were cheaper. You could go to Wal-Mart and get cheaper prices, but you would be buying censored or edited albums.
I remember the Wal-Mart release of Eminem’s second album was missing the entire song of Kim for example, just completely replaced.
I think a lot of people who post about the nineties weren’t spending their own money or something, because I remember how pricey music was, and cherished each CD.
I still have some of my CDs from the nineties.
No the average price of CDs in the 90s was about $15 and they were on sale regularly for $10-12 in some places.
I bought about 400 CDs in the 90s and still have them.
Cool, but definitely not my experience growing up. You could get those prices sometimes at Wal-Mart but CDa would be edited or censored, and I grew up in an area where there were no standalone CD or Record stores, so all I saw and had access to was mall stores like Camelot Music, FYE, or Sam Goody.
The prices I’m referencing were 100% accurate for my time of reference, which was the bulk of the nineties.
Only towards the end, like literal turn of the century late 1999 into 2000 did things actually start to change.
I promise this is true.
Where were you getting albums from popular bands/artists for $10 in '99? That shit was approaching $20 or more when Napster finally took care of those assholes.
I think streaming makes music a “throwaway” product.
I well and fondly remember when a new album of my favorite band came out and I met friends at the music store to listen and buy it from my saved pocket money. And I still habe most of these albums… and I still listen to them… all though they live on my music players hdd permanently
Streaming allowed me to discover 1700 songs that I love. It gave me the opportunity to enjoy countless genres. Now I export my liked songs to a spreadsheet so I never lose them. I wouldn’t be able to do that otherwise. It’s done great things for my music listening.
Music streaming is just … Objectively better for everybody. Small bands can be heard, hence the indy scene booming so hard, consumers can access their content anywhere there’s internet.
I think you miss the ritual around getting physical media and having a session where you just sit back and listen to the album for the first time. You could try to replicate it, but I think child-like wonder was the main ingredient ;)
There’s still good stuff out there. You just have to dig deeper, take risks, and you have to make the conscious decision to give it an active listen from front to back.
Right? There are artists who still care about the album format. King Gizz was one of those gems I discovered that I wouldn’t have otherwise. They’re constantly dropping new thematic albums worth listening to. And you can buy vinyl from many artists these days if you want a physical copy.
